PRODUCER & DIRECTOR

Gary Yost led the team that invented Autodesk 3ds Max, the world’s most popular 3D visual effects production system, and is an award-winning filmmaker with unique expertise in the combined fields of computer imaging, filmmaking and immersive storytelling. He founded the WisdomVR Project in 2018 with Ram Dass as the inaugural subject and is the president of the board of directors. Wikipedia

DIRECTOR & EDITOR

Adam Loften is a documentary filmmaker producing award-winning 360/VR films and multimedia stories that highlight pressing social and environmental issues. His projects have screened at film festivals around the world and have been featured on PBS, National Geographic, Emergence Magazine, The Atlantic and the New York Times. Website

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Rolf Berteig is a co-inventor of Autodesk 3ds Max, the world’s most popular 3D visual effects production system, and has been developing tools for 3D content creation since 1992 with a special focus on real-time rendering and shader creation, inverse kinematics, geometry optimization and modeling of natural phenomena. Rolf is co-founder of Spatiality LLC, the developers of Thingamajig: a VR based experience and world building tool, and is the lead engineer for the WisdomVR Vaccine Voyager project. LinkedIn

SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION

Drew Berry, PhD is a cell biologist and biomedical animator who creates beautiful, accurate visualisations of the dramatic cellular and molecular action that is going on inside our bodies.  Since 1995 he has led biomedical animation within the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Australia. His animations have exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum, MoMA, the Royal Institute of Great Britain and the University of Geneva. In 2010, he received a MacArthur Fellowship “Genius Grant”. Wikipedia

MOLECULAR BIOLOGIST & ANIMATOR 

Gaël McGill, PhD is faculty and Director of Molecular Visualization at Harvard Medical School, and CEO of Digizyme Inc, a firm dedicated to the visualization and communication of science.  He is the creator of the Molecular Maya (mMaya) software toolkit, the scientific visualization community Clarafi.com, and co-author and digital director for Apple’s flagship iPad textbook, E.O. Wilson’s Life on Earth. Website

3D ANIMATION

Andy Murdock, founder of the CGI house Lots of Robots, is a multi-Emmy-nominated visual effects supervisor and animator with over 30 years of experience in the field of 3D animation and scientific visualization. His work with National Geographic and the Discovery Channel on over a decade’s worth of film projects has been the ideal preparation for the virion simulations for Inside COVID19. Website

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

Amy Pinkerton is an instructional designer at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Center for Teaching and Learning and serves as an instructional designer for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Amy provides public health instructional design experience and course development knowledge to the WisdomVR team, and serves as the liaison between the production team and outside educators. LinkedIn

CELL BIOLOGY, LIFE SCIENCES

Scott Eliasof, PhD is our team’s biologist, with over 25 years of experience as a leader in the field, including as Director of the Chemical Biology Platform at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and Chief Scientific Officer at Cerulean Pharma, Inc. Scott’s background using new technology to discover molecular pathways fundamental to cell and disease biology provides in-house knowledge fundamental to the scientific accuracy of the WisdomVR work. LinkedIn

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

James Prudente is formerly the Director of Special Projects at HTC and is a co-founder of Spatiality LLC, the developers of Thingamajig: a VR based experience and world building tool.  James brings specialized knowledge of VR hardware and mobile GPU processors to the study of real-time profiling as it relates to maintaining a high level of interactivity in our Vaccine Voyager project. LinkedIn

MUSIC & SOUND DESIGN

James Jackson is a producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has spent the last five years creating critically acclaimed content across musical genres and artistic disciplines. A constant creative force, James has composed music for a wide range of artists and artistic companies, from rappers and pop artists to dance and theatre companies, to composing feature-length film scores and VR spatial audio experiences. Wikipedia

DEVELOPMENT

Yuki Ueda currently serves as a program director and curriculum designer with VIA Programs, and she supports the WisdomVR team in pursuing grant funding for new projects. With a background in public health and international education and many years of experience in the nonprofit sector, she is passionate about increasing access and equity for marginalized communities. LinkedIn

STORYTELLER / VISUAL ARTIST

L. Frank Manriquez is a a Tongva-Ajachmem artist, writer, tribal scholar, cartoonist, and a founding board member of the Advocates for Indigenous California Languages. She is focused on the preservation and revival of Native Californian languages through traditional arts practice, language immersion and workshops. Awards for her activities include from the James Irvine Foundation and the Fund for Folk Culture community. WisdomVR film. Wikipedia

CHERYL JAGODA, board member

Cheryl joins the WisdomVR foundation board, bringing her time, talents, and a wealth of experience from a variety of leadership roles in the nonprofit sector. From fundraising to strategic planning to branding, Cheryl draws from her nonprofit experience at the Marin General Hospital Foundation and years in education as a Senior Administrator at Independent Schools throughout the Bay Area, years in the High Tech Software Industry at Autodesk and the decade she ran her own event management business. LinkedIn

DAVID LAWRENCE, board member

Foundation board member David Lawrence is a designer, producer and media artist with over 30 years of expertise in digital media. His early work in the 1980s at Lucasfilm Ltd. includes pioneering research and production of innovative multimedia projects that launched the interactive digital world we take for granted today. He is a co-founder of Public Matters, a multidisciplinary nonprofit with expertise in public art, education, new media, community building and youth leadership development. LinkedIn

REBECCA TREDWAY, treasurer

As foundation Treasurer, Rebecca Tredway Ward brings a wealth of experience to the job of managing the 501(c)(3) nonprofit status of the WisdomVR Project Foundation. Her previous roles include Manager of Finance at the Walt Disney Company, Controller at Turner Broadcast System, Director of Finance at Autodesk Entertainment, Chief Operating Officer for Mental Images, Inc, and more recently co-founder of the Professional Independent Consultants of America. LinkedIn